It’s been twenty years!!!!!
Who would have ever guessed when my feet landed on the soil of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, that we together would play a part in bringing hope to more than 12,000 lives?
It all began with an adventurous trip to see the ancient sites of Ethiopia. My first day there, December 1, 2003, was full of bewilderment as I decided what sites I wanted most to see during my short stay as a tourist.
My first stop was Axum to visit historical sites of the Cushite people. In the first morning of my tour, I knew I had made a mistake as soon as I tasted my juice at that first breakfast. After a resulting bout with typhoid, a great story for another day, I traveled back to the USA, only to return to Ethiopia a few months later when I discovered the problems of women with obstetric fistula, a medical condition most often caused by early childbirth that leaves a woman leaking urine and/or feces the rest of her life. My heart was broken and I could not go back to my life as usual in Colorado, USA without helping at least some. With the commitment of a small and mighty team (YOU), we helped one-thousand five hundred women with fistula have surgical repair, learn sellable skills, open their minds with basic literacy training, and most important of all, gave them love and hope for the future.
Although, even today, we would still help any woman who suffers obstetric fistula, we have lived to see an almost eradication of fistula in Ethiopia, thus opening our resources to reach the root of the problem, basic poverty, best improved by education for girls.
We provide this help and love to the poorest and most outcast of all, needy schoolgirls in rural Ethiopia. This school year we have once again helped keep close to four hundred girls in school. Each girl has her own bank account. Our support goes directly from our Trampled Rose bank account into the schoolgirl’s account promoting self-direction and empowerment and ensuring integrity in finances.
Maybe more important than financial, our supported girls also get lots of love and belief. We try to visit each girl personally at least three times a year and, if conditions are peaceful, we also travel with volunteers to share even more experience and more love. Every girl is also provided training on life skills with our program, There is Greatness in You.
The results of the warm recipe of money to cover basic needs, mixed with empowerment and love have been astonishingly successful. Dropouts have been rare and most of our girls graduate from high school qualified to continue to the federal universities with full scholarships. We now hear from our graduates who are medical doctors, nurses, teachers, engineers, business owners, accountants and more. This support you are providing is not only changing her life but also is changing the directions of her generations to come.
This year’s evolution of providing help to boys has proved to be astonishingly effective. This seems like a natural spin-off to our current success and we will keep you informed as we continue to evaluate our effectiveness and efficiency. This project was funded separately from the support for keeping girls in school.
In Ethiopia this year, we have been traumatized by increased civil war but the hope in our students burns even brighter.
Let’s join our wishes together for Peace on Earth and another happy twenty years together.
XO Rebekah (Becky) Kiser
Founder/Country Director
Trampled Rose, Inc.
Remember; There is nothing more powerful than a girl with a wish.
Shamarree hawwii qabdu caalaa wanti humna qabu hin jiru. (Oromiffa)
ምኞት ያላት ሴት ልጅ የበለጠ ኃይል ያለው ነገር የለም (Amharic)